which we're going to get through this

[Mark Mandel]

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 10:54 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>wrote:

> Arnold's first example looks like a syntactic blend to me:
>   ("Actually I drank some green Bigalow tea, which I was
> surprised at how good it was.")
>
> From: "... I drank some green Bigalow tea, which was surprisingly good."
> plus "... I drank some green Bigalow tea , and I was surprised at how
> good it was."
>

As does Jonathan's example, "...if the child is taken to a
treaty-party country, which the United States and Brazil have been
treaty-party countries for many years."


There are some odd uses of "which" in the Harte poem. IMO they are all in
stanzas 1, 3, & 4; the "which"es in the rest I think are pretty standard.

l.1 looks like a conjunction all right, which is weird in any case unless
you take it in context of an ongoing conversation, which may have been the
case in original publication -- I don't know. It also parallels the
occurrence in the first line of the last stanza, where however it is a
normal relative referring to the whole of the events that have just been
narrated.

l.6: relative, to the clause of ll.3-5.

l.15: for "from which", rel. to l.14?

l.19: This one is definitely weird. Discursal conjunction??

(from http://www.bartleby.com/102/200.html)
200. Plain Language from Truthful James
Table Mountain, 1870

WHICH I wish to remark,
  And my language is plain,
That for ways that are dark
  And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar,             5
   Which the same I would rise to explain.

Ah Sin was his name;
  And I shall not deny,
In regard to the same,
  What that name might imply;      10
But his smile it was pensive and childlike,
  As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye.

It was August the third,
  And quite soft was the skies;
Which it might be inferred      15
  That Ah Sin was likewise;
Yet he played it that day upon William
  And me in a way I despise.

Which we had a small game,
  And Ah Sin took a hand:      20
It was Euchre. The same
  He did not understand;
But he smiled as he sat by the table,
  With the smile that was childlike and bland.

...
[FINAL STANZA]
Which is why I remark,      55
  And my language is plain,
That for ways that are dark
  And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar,—
  Which the same I am free to maintain.      60

m a m

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